By Stefan Zelazny, Mobisol For decades, the only accepted idea of electrification was access to the grid implemented by big utilities, served by huge power plants. This concept worked fairly well in the developed world — if leaving out of consideration the environmental aspects of the massive use of fossil fuels. Billions of dollars have been invested to transfer this …

October 20th, 2017 by Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, International Energy Agency (IEA) published its new Energy Access Outlook: from Poverty to Prosperity A new analysis from the International Energy Agency has found that the most cost-effective strategy for bringing universal energy access to developing countries is also compatible with meeting global climate goals. The International Energy Agency (IEA) published its new Energy Access Outlook: …

By Steve Hanley 22 August 2017. This story about an electric car for Africa was first published on Gas2. At the Frankfurt auto show in September, a group of scientists and engineers at the prestigious Technical University of Munich will unveil the fruits of a project they have been working on for the past 4 years — an electric car designed specifically to …

On Carbon Brief, 2 August 2017 Dr Keith Shepherd is a principal soil scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and Dr Rolf Sommer is a principal soil and climate change scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Together they lead the Restoring Degraded Landscapesresearch theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). How we manage soils is crucial to tackling climate change. …

It is now well understood that universal electricity access by 2030 (a core part of U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 7 -SDG 7) can only be achieved if decentralized renewable energy (DRE) — green micro-grids and rooftop solar paired with storage and ultra-efficiency appliances — gets adequate finance to reach scale quickly. And that can only happen if leaders overseeing international …

University of Exeter. “Summer rainfall in vulnerable African region can be predicted.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 May 2017. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170525085109.htm Summer rainfall in one of the world’s most drought-prone regions can now be predicted months or years in advance, climate scientists at the Met Office and the University of Exeter say. The Sahel region of Africa — a strip across the southern …

In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, adding distributed renewable power may be more cost-effective than extending the grid to those without access to electricity, says a Dutch government report. The need is vast, with more than 600 million people on the continent living without electricity. Climate Home reports on the study here. And here’s a story we ran earlier this …

Combined energy and water system could provide for millions: Analysis shows system could economically bring fresh water and renewable energy storage to drought-stricken coastal regions worldwide. Introduction by Kelley Travers | MIT Energy Initiative, 18 April 2017. Full copy of the article is available at the link and below the overview. The team’s analysis determined that in Southern California, all power …

March 8th, 2017 by Tina Casey on Clean Technica The news buzzing around the Intertubes this week shows just how far the solar energy field has come in a few short years. In the latest development, the Nigerian government is considering a $30 million allocation for off-grid solar projects. According to a report in Bloomberg solar panels are an “economic option” …